DUTA Press Release; 23 May 2018

Teachers decide to continue Evaluation Boycott;
ready to give stiff opposition to any move to grant autonomy to St
Stephen’s College and Hindu College





As the Government moves forward on its agenda to grant autonomous status to DU Colleges, the General Body of teachers unanimously resolved to give stiff opposition and continue with the evaluation boycott. The General Body took this decision on the basis of the feedback received from Staff Associations of colleges.

The General Body congratulated teachers for successfully implementing Evaluation Boycott. The DUTA will continue to seek active support from students’ unions and groups as well as from DUCKU. The DUTA will also approach Members of Parliament and Leaders of political groups to garner support for the ongoing movement. The DUTA will use social media to generate public opinion – create short video clips on the anti-people and anti-education policies against which the DUTA is struggling. The DUTA will also bring out a handbill for students and general public.

The General Body further resolved the following:

1.  Continue with the Evaluation Boycott till further review.

2.  “DU Bachao” protest at the UGC on Thursday, 24 May, 9:30 am -1:30 pm

3.  “Satyagraha: Mass Hunger Strike”, Wednesday, 30 May 2018, 10 am – 5 pm, Mandi House: DUTA will also write to teachers’ and students’ unions of other universities.

The next GBM will be held on 1 June 2018, 10 am

The General Body expressed its anguish over the attempts by the Government to thrust autonomous status on colleges in connivance with college administrations and governing bodies. The Schemes of Autonomous Colleges and Graded Autonomy is a push towards self-financing schemes and online courses. Universities and colleges of repute are being turned into teaching shop. Seen along with the scheme like HEFA, where in grants will be replaced by loans to institutions, the Government wants to push the burden of maintaining and expanding Central and State Universities on parents and students. This will have far reaching consequences for higher education, changing its objectives and purpose especially in a country like ours. It will have a disastrous effect on access to and quality of higher education. Commercialisation of public funded institutions will essentially dilute the public, democratic and inclusive character of public education and will particularly harm the interests of deprived and marginalised sections – dalits, minorities, tribals and women. With annual fees running into lakhs, even the middle class will find it difficult to afford higher education for children.

On 20 March 2018, 60 institutions were granted Autonomy under the scheme of Graded Autonomy and Scheme of Autonomous Colleges. DU Colleges are being pressurised to become autonomous under the said scheme. Despite widespread protests by the academic community, including a protest march by more than fifteen thousand students and teachers on 28 March 2018, the UGC has gone ahead and organised two meetings with Principals, the last one on 27 April 2018. There are reports that the UGC will consider grant of autonomous status to St Stephen’s College. There is a fear that the UGC may also consider granting autonomous status to Hindu College.

Teachers are also agitating against the UGC Notification dated 5 March 2018 directing universities to implement the Reservation Roster Department/Subject-wise for teaching posts is an attack on Reservation Policy. The notified change in reservation roster will lead to a drastic slowdown in fulfilling the Constitutionally mandated reservation percentages of 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs. It has caused the process of permanent appointment to come to a halt. This process had started following the intervention of the Delhi High Court and had barely taken off.

Recasting of roster will also cause large scale displacement of adhoc teachers. Over 4000 teachers are teaching on adhoc basis for last several years.  The DUTA is demanding that the 5 March letter be withdrawn and over 2000 posts advertised in DU last year under the High Court judgement be filled with no further delay.

The MHRD and the UGC is yet to respond to DUTA representations against negative and unhealthy provisions in the MHRD Notification regarding pay revision of teachers and in the Draft UGC Regulations.

DUTA has been forced to take harsh decision of Evaluation Boycott because of the policy attack in terms of privatisation and fragmentation of Delhi University through the Scheme of Autonomous Colleges and attack on the Reservation Policy on one hand and the apathy of the Delhi University administration towards long pending demands of teachers.

Lack of appointments and promotions have pushed many teachers to leave for better prospects elsewhere. Teachers have remained without a single promotion since 2009 due to the retrospective implementation of API. The fact that even promotion cases with eligibility before 2008 remain unresolved reveals the apathetic attitude of the administration. This inordinate delay has caused deep demoralization among teachers. The University must immediately set up Selection Committees for University Department teachers whose promotions to Associate Professor and Professor Grades are pending.University administration should also ensure pension for those, namely category 3 as well as the ‘options’ category who are in GPF with pension accounts/numbers for the last twenty years, who do not fall within the ambit of the ongoing litigation.

The apathy of the Government and the University authorities have forced teachers on the warpath. They are responsible for the present crisis. Teachers and students have been up in arms against fragmentation and privatisation of DU for last few months. We urge the Government and the University to initiate dialogue for resolutions of our just demands. We want assurance that DU will not be dismantled and privatised. Lakhs of students apply for admission in DU from across the country because it offers affordable quality education. It cannot be allowed to be destroyed.

We seek support of parents, students and concerned citizens for our struggle to save public funded universities, to save Delhi University.

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